帰ってきた「踊るおばさん」、新型コロナ終息の兆し　中国

【上海ＡＦＰ＝時事】世界で新型コロナウイルスの感染が拡大する中、このウイルスが最初に確認された中国では、異例の封鎖措置と移動制限により国内で感染する人が急減しており、中国以外とは逆の方向へ向かい始めている。（写真は資料写真）
　レストランや交通機関、工場が再開し、中国は新型コロナウイルスによる昏睡（こんすい）状態から目覚めたかのようだ。そのことを最も明確に表しているのは、公園や広場に再び集まるようになった「踊るおばさん」たちだ。
　定年退職して北京で暮らしているワン・フイシアンさんは、公園に集まり、ポータブルスピーカーの音楽に合わせて踊る国民的娯楽を楽しむ女性たちの一人だ。だが今は、他の人たちと３メートルの間隔を空けるようにしている。
　日常生活は正常に戻ったと言うには程遠い。大半の場所はマスクを着用し体温を測定しなければ入れない。大規模な「社会距離」キャンペーンが行われる中、飲食店は客が向かい合って食事をすることを禁じているが、人口が世界で最も多い中国では容易なことではない。
　人々は握手を求められると縮み上がり、多くのレストランは半数の椅子を撤去して客と客の間のスペースを確保し、大規模会合に対しては今もさまざまな規制が課されている。
　今や誰もが着用するようになったマスクは、朝の身支度習慣の一つとなり、インターネットでは影響力の大きい美容アドバイザーらがマスクを汚さないよう顔の上半分だけに化粧する方法を数百万人の女性たちに教えている。
　新型ウイルスは、中国で８万１０００人近い感染者と３２００人を超える死者を出したが、それ以外にも多くの傷痕を残した。
　世界第２位の経済大国である中国では、工場の閉鎖と大都市の封鎖により、数週間にわたり社会機能が停止。失業者の急増や企業の倒産などから生じる痛みは長引くとみられている。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2020/03/19-16:26）

Restaurants are reopening, traffic and factories are stirring, and in one of the clearest signs yet that China is awakening from its coronavirus coma, the country's dancing aunties are once again gathering in parks and squares.
As the rest of the world runs for cover, China -- where the virus first emerged -- is moving, guardedly, in the opposite direction as domestic infections fall to nil following unprecedented lockdowns and travel restrictions.
But ordinary life is far from normal.
Masks and temperature checks are essential to enter most places and many eateries are banning diners from facing each other in a mass social distancing campaign -- no easy task in the world's most populous nation.
Beijing retiree Wang Huixian was among a dozen women practising the national pastime of dancing in unison to music from portable speakers in a public park -- but now with a gap of three metres (10 feet) between them.
During the epidemic, everyone was very tense and afraid. So we want to relax now, said Wang, 57.
But she added: Everyone is cautious and keeping a distance from each other to avoid getting infected.
Alongside more than 3,200 deaths and over 81,000 total infections, the coronavirus outbreak has left further scars.
China, the world's second-largest economy, was shut down for weeks, with factories silent and massive cities locked down.
The pain from that is expected to persist, with a surge in joblessness and many businesses gone bust.
- Sense of relief -
Most of the country is now slowly lifting restrictions and people are returning to work, unlike many Western countries where governments have ordered sweeping restrictions not seen during peacetime.
Many European countries are in near-total internal lockdown, and popular tourist spots are deserted.
But after weeks of empty streets and citizens sheltering at home for safety, Shanghai has transformed in recent days.
Cafes and some tourist sites have reopened, and residents of China's biggest city are re-emerging for tai chi in the park, or to take selfies along the riverfront under bright spring sunshine.
I was very scared. A sense of fear persisted, said 50-year-old Zhang Min, the owner of an office-supply company, while strolling in a Shanghai park.
But now all is good... not like the people overseas who are engaged in panic-buying.
The flow of daily commuters into Shanghai's financial district is picking up and some inter-provincial travel restrictions have eased.
However, many provinces and cities like Shanghai now require citizens to show a downloaded QR code on their mobile phone that rates them as green, yellow or red -- based on tracking of whether they visited a high-risk zone -- before entering many businesses.
My feeling is that people with (virus) issues can't come out, but people who can are safe, so we're reassured, child-care worker Lai Jinfeng, 41, said while strolling the Shanghai's famous Bund.
People shrink from an offered handshake, many restaurants have removed half their chairs to disperse customers, and other restrictions on large gatherings remain in place.
And the now-ubiquitous face mask is being worked into cosmetics routines, with online beauty influencers instructing millions of women on applying make-up only to the upper half of the face, without staining the mask itself.
President Xi Jinping declared during a March 10 visit to the still locked-down epicentre city of Wuhan in Hubei province that China had turned the tide, and a top economic official said Tuesday that 90 percent of businesses outside Hubei were operating again.
But as China emerges from the worst of the virus on its soil, the costs of the pandemic will become clearer in the coming weeks and months, analysts say.
Basically before the epidemic, last year, my business was very good, but not now, said Cai Qizhen, 52, who runs a small cobbler's shop in Shanghai.
Now basically I don't come in the morning... and I'm finished by 3 pm with nothing left to do.
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